1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to dynamically assigning security parameters to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) pages of a website owner's information content.
2. Description of the Background Art
Over the past few years, the internet has experienced phenomenal growth, both in the number of computers on the internet and in the number of people using them. Leading the way in this growth is the worldwide web, and the application which made this possible is the web browser, a point-and-click front end to the internet. The development of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) made it possible to create "hypertext" documents with embedded links to other sites and other documents, and the browsers enabled the average person to "surf the Net," which was previously done only by computer experts. Not only was the technology available, it was given away for free, either by browser developers or by companies providing dial-up access to the internet.
One result of the web's rapid growth is that most web information content is free and not secure. Almost anyone can access almost anything, including the files stored on web servers which are located outside protective firewalls. This is a problem for a business which wants to set up a storefront on the web because security is required before customers will feel comfortable doing transactions such as processing a credit card purchase or an electronic funds transfer.
New products are becoming available which add security to web servers and browsers, and website owners must incorporate the new security technology. Part of this effort involves modifying the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that makes up the content of web pages in a way that is specific to the security technology being used. The result is that site owners have to maintain multiple versions of the same HTML pages, one set of pages for each security technology supported. Also, this requires web users to obtain new security enabled browsers to view these HTML pages. As the number of security technologies increases, so too will the number of browsers increase to take advantage of the advancements. This requirement to upgrade is a burden on the user community, and the maintenance of multiple sets of HTML pages is a burden on website owners.
The great majority of sites currently on the worldwide web do not incorporate any security measures. As new products become available which support security standards such as Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (SHTTP) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), website owners will need to add new security technology to their web pages while not denying access to the millions of internet users, all of whom are potential customers who have backlevel (nonsecure and/or secure) browsers. It is possible but undesirable to maintain multiple sets of HTML pages, one for each type of security protocol. This application describes a tool that enables a company, e.g., a website owner, to maintain a single set of HTML pages which can be served to a variety of browsers.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a method and means that permit a worldwide web information provider to maintain only one set of HTML pages which can be served to browsers enabled with differing security protocols.
It is another important object of the present invention to dynamically assign security parameters to an HTML page when it is accessed via a user browser request to a web server, whereby only one set of HTML pages need to stored for access by browsers with differing security protocols.